Substrate distribution system and a method using the same

ABSTRACT

A glass substrate distribution system includes a cassette, a first transmission mechanism, and a second transmission mechanism. The first transmission mechanism transmits the glass substrate to several standby positions outside the cassette. The second transmission mechanism transmits the glass substrate between the standby positions and the glass substrate.

This application is a divisional application of pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/025,925, filed Jan. 3, 2005, now allowed (ofwhich the entire disclosure of the pending, prior application is herebyincorporated by reference).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates in general to a distribution system and a methodthereof, and more particularly to a substrate distribution system andmethod.

2. Description of the Related Art

The glass substrate is an essential component to the Liquid CrystalDisplay (LCD). There are various LCD with different specifications inthe marketplace. As it should be, providing a cassette having receivingareas of different size to contain the glass substrate of different sizeis indispensable during production. Conventionally, a wire cassette isused to receive glass substrates.

Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, a front view and a transparent top view ofa conventional glass substrate access device 100 are shown respectively.The glass substrate access device 100 includes a wire cassette androllers 140. The wire cassette includes a roof 102, a base 103, two sidewalls 105, and spacers 120. The roof 102, the base 103, and the two sidewalls 105 define a space. The spacers 120 are disposed on the innersurface of the two side walls 105, for spacing the space into severalsubstrate receiving areas 150, each of which receives one glasssubstrate. The wire cassette includes several parallel wires 122arranged in the substrate receiving areas 150. As shown in FIG. 1B, bothof the glass substrates 166 and 164 can be transmitted into the wirecassette by the rollers 140 and then supported by several wires 122 inthe substrate receiving area 150. However, the distance between two rowsof rollers 140 is fixed. Any glass substrate with a width smaller thanthat distance fails to be transmitted into the wire cassette by therollers 140, thereby decreasing the storage capacity. Further, theconventional rollers transmit single glass substrate each time therollers rotate for accessing the glass substrate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a glass substratedistribution system and method to increase the storage capacity of thecassette for receiving small glass substrates and to enhance the storageefficiency, thereby lowering the manufacturing cost of the glasssubstrate.

The invention achieves the above-identified object by providing a glasssubstrate distribution system. The system includes a cassette, a firsttransmission mechanism, and a second transmission mechanism. The firsttransmission mechanism is disposed outside the cassette, fortransmitting the glass substrate to several standby positions outsidethe cassette. The second transmission mechanism transmits the glasssubstrate between the standby positions and the cassette.

The invention achieves the above-identified object by providing a glasssubstrate distribution method. The glass substrate distribution methodincludes the following steps. A cassette is first provided. The glasssubstrate is then carried to several standby positions. After that, theglass substrate is transmitted into the cassette from the standbypositions to the glass cassette.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent from the following detailed description of the preferred butnon-limiting embodiments. The following description is made withreference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A (Prior Art) is a front view of a conventional glass substrateaccess device.

FIG. 1B (Prior Art) is a transparent top view of the glass substrateaccess device in FIG. 1A.

FIG. 2A is cross-sectional side view of a glass substrate distributionsystem according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2B is a transparent top view of the glass substrate distributionsystem in FIG. 2A.

FIGS. 3A-3E show a glass substrate distribution method according to thepreferred embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional side view ofa glass substrate distribution system according to a preferredembodiment of the invention and FIG. 2B is a transparent top view of theglass substrate distribution system in FIG. 2A. The glass substratedistribution system includes a cassette 200, a first transmissionmechanism 270, and a second transmission mechanism. The cassette 200 hasat least one substrate receiving area 250. The cassette 200 includes aroof 202, a base 203, two side walls, and spacers. The roof 202, thebase 203, and the two side walls define a space. The spacers aredisposed on the inner surface of the two side walls, for spacing thespace into several substrate receiving areas 250, each of which receivesone glass substrate. As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the cassette includesa partition structure 260, and several adjacent supports 222. Theadjacent supports 222 disposed in each substrate receiving area 250 areparallel with one another, for upholding the glass substrate.

The partition structure 260 is disposed at the cassette 200, forpartitioning each substrate receiving area 250 into several storingspaces. As shown in FIG. 2A, the partition structure 260 includes afixer, and an adjusting component 266. The fixer is used to affix thepartition structure 260 to an upper hole 262 a and a lower hole 264 a inthe cassette 200. The fixer includes an upper block 262 and a lowerblock 264, which are movably disposed in the upper hole 262 a and thelower hole 264 a respectively along a direction perpendicular to themoving direction of the substrate. The adjusting component 266 is foradjusting the position of the upper block relative to the upper hole andthe position of the lower block relative to the lower hole. Theadjusting component preferably is a spring for connecting the upperblock 262 and the lower block 264. As shown in FIG. 2B, the partitionstructure 260 partitions one substrate receiving area 250 into twoareas, which respectively provide the storing spaces 252 and 256 and thestoring spaces 254 and 258. That is, the cassette 200 has four storingspaces 252, 254, 256 and 258. As shown in FIG. 2C, the partitionstructure 260 partitions one substrate receiving an area 250 into twoareas, which respectively provide the storing spaces 252′ and 256′smaller than the storing spaces 252 and 256 and the storing spaces 254′and 258′ smaller than the storing spaces 254 and 258. Further, thepartition structure 260 can determine the number of the storing spacesaccording to the size of substrate. In particular, the partitionstructure 260 can multiply the storing spaces in the cassette 200 forreceiving small glass substrates, thereby increasing the storagecapacity of the cassette. Besides, the partition structure can easilyadjust the size of the substrate receiving areas for receiving varioussizes of the glass substrates to satisfy the actual need withoutdisassemble and reassemble the cassette 200.

The second transmission mechanism can transmit the glass substrate intothe cassette 200 from the standby positions 282 and 284 to the storingspaces 252, 254, 256 and 258 or transmit the glass substrate out of thecassette from the storing spaces 252, 254, 256 and 258 to the standbypositions 282 and 284. The second transmission mechanism preferably is aroller set, which includes several inner rollers 244 and several outerrollers 242. The outer rollers 242 are aligned with the inner rollers244. The inner rollers 244 are disposed between the supports 222 andhigher than the supports 222. The inner rollers 244 are able to moveupward and downward inside the cassette 200. As shown in FIG. 2B, theinner rollers 244 and the supports 222 are alternately arranged in thesubstrate receiving area 250. The outer rollers 242 are disposed outsidethe cassette 200 and adjacent to the first transmission mechanism 270.The first transmission mechanism 270 is disposed outside the cassette200, for carrying the glass substrate to several standby positionsoutside the cassette 200. The first transmission mechanism 270 includesa shift means 272 and a lift means 274. The shift means 272 is forhorizontally shifting the glass substrate among the standby positions282 and 284 while the lift means 274 is for vertically uplifting theglass substrate above the outer rollers 242 or lowering the glasssubstrate onto the outer rollers 242.

Please refer to FIGS. 3A to 3E, which shows a glass substratedistribution method according to the preferred embodiment of theinvention; please also refer to FIGS. 2A and 2B. The glass substratedistribution method is applied to the glass substrate distributionsystem. The cassette 200 having several storing spaces is firstprovided. As shown in FIG. 3A, the glass substrate 302 is placed on theouter rollers 242. Then, in FIG. 3B, the first transmission mechanism270 transmits the glass substrate 302 to the standby position 282outside the cassette 200. The lift means 274 uplifts the glass substrate302 above the outer rollers 242, and the shift means 272 shifts theglass substrate 302 above the standby position 282. After that, the liftmeans 274 lowers the glass substrate 302 onto the first outer rollers242 a corresponding to the standby position 282 for setting the glasssubstrate 302 on the standby position 282. The method according to theinvention introduces the distribute transmission which meanssequentially driving the first outer rollers 242 a and the second outerrollers 242 b before the glass substrates get into the cassette butsimultaneously driving the roller set to transmit the glass substratesinto the cassette. It is noted that the glass substrate can also bedirectly transmitted from the standby position to the storing spaces 252or 256. As shown in FIG. 3C, only the first outer rollers 242 a aredriven to transmit the glass substrate 302 from the standby position 282to the area 320. After that, the cassette 200 is moved upward and theinner roller is moved downward to receive the next substrate. Meanwhile,the first transmission mechanism 270 returns to the initial status forwaiting the next glass substrate. Similarly, in FIG. 3D, another glasssubstrate 304 placed on the outer rollers 242 is carried to the standbyposition 284. Then, only the second outer rollers 242 b are driven totransmit the glass substrate 304 from the standby position 284 to thearea 320. As shown in FIG. 3D, two glass substrates 302 and 304 aretransmitted to the area 320. At last, two glass substrates 302 and 304in the area 320 are simultaneously and respectively transmitted to thestoring spaces 252 and 254 by the first outer and inner rollers 242 aand 244 b and by the second outer and inner rollers 242 b and 244 b, asshown in FIG. 3E. The distribution transmission introduced by theinvention can simultaneously transmit several glass substrates so as toenhance the storage efficiency, save time, and lower the manufacturingcost.

In FIG. 2B, the substrate receiving area 250 further provides the othertwo storing spaces 256 and 258. Therefore, the above-mentioned steps canbe repeated to transmit the other two glass substrates (not shown inFIG. 2B) from the standby positions 282 and 284 to the storing spaces256 and 258. It is understood that the above-mentioned steps can bereversed for transmitting the glass substrates out of the cassette fromthe storing spaces to the standby positions.

Moreover, as shown in FIG. 2A, the cassette is a multi-layer cassettehaving several substrate receiving areas, each of which is partitionedinto several storing spaces. Thus, the multi-layer cassette is firstpositioned before starting the distribute method so that the firststoring space of the first substrate receiving area levelly correspondto the standby positions for transmission. Then, the cassette is movedto reposition the cassette so that the second storing space levellycorresponds to the standby positions for further transmission.

The glass substrate distribute system and method according to thepreferred embodiment of the invention has the special design of thepartition structure, which can easily adjust the size of the substratereceiving areas for receiving various sizes of the glass substrates tosatisfy the actual need. In particular, the partition structure canmultiply the storing spaces in the cassette for receiving small glasssubstrates, thereby increasing the storage capacity of the cassette. Thepartition structure not only can adjust the storing spaces withoutdisassemble and reassemble the cassette 200 but also determine thenumber of the storing spaces according to the size of substrate.Further, the distribution transmission introduced by the invention cansimultaneously transmit several glass substrates so as to enhance thestorage efficiency, save time, and lower the manufacturing cost.Besides, the invention can also be utilized with substrates other thanglass, such as ITO substrates, plastic substrates or substrates withsimilar shape.

While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms ofa preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is notlimited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover variousmodifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope ofthe appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadestinterpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similararrangements and procedures.

1. A substrate distribution method, comprising the steps of: (a)providing a cassette; (b) carrying one or more substrates to a pluralityof standby positions; and (c) transmitting the substrates from thestandby positions to the cassette.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein the transmitting in the step (c) is accomplished by a pluralityof inner rollers inside the cassette and a plurality of outer rollersoutside the cassette.
 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein thestep (b) comprises: placing the substrate on the outer rollers;uplifting the substrate; shifting the substrate above a standbyposition; and lowering the substrate onto the outer rollerscorresponding to the standby position.
 4. The method according to claim2, wherein the step (b) comprises: placing a first substrate on theouter rollers; shifting the first substrate to a first position; placinga second substrate on the outer rollers; shifting the second substrateto a second position; and simultaneously shifting the first and thesecond substrates to the standby position.
 5. The method according toclaim 1, wherein before the step (b) further comprises partitioning thecassette into a plurality of storing spaces.
 6. The method according toclaim 1, wherein after the step (c) further comprises: moving thecassette upward to receive the next substrate.
 7. The method accordingto claim 2, wherein after the step (c) further comprises: moving theinner roller downward to receive the next substrate.